It’s been a year since Aquila started training me. We have been going on tier 5 monster hunts for a while now. Since then, I have gotten two more scars on my lower back and two on my arm. Octavia always throws a fit whenever she has to heal my wounds. Complaining that I am putting myself in dangerous situations so often.
Other than a couple of deep wounds, mid to high-range tier 5 monsters are getting easier to deal with. That being said, I am only just getting near the level of dealing with low-range tier 4 monsters. Tier 4 is a difficult hurdle to clear, it’s where over 90% of warriors get stuck. I am feeling the effects of this myself, luckily Aquila is a good teacher. She is low tier 3 range herself. However, her license only allows for tier 4 hunting.
Tier 5 is about average for a lifelong warrior. At this level, you are stronger than the average person to an extreme degree. Also, you can defeat monsters like crystal bears with ease. It is proof that you pushed your body far beyond natural human capabilities and are smart and skilled enough to use it properly. But there is a reason the scale for warrior and monster strength has such wide differences between tiers. That’s because there are outliers in this world, mind-bendingly strong monsters, and humans. The scale which measures strength has to take into account those outliers.
For now, my goal is to overcome the hurdle of tier 4. In doing so, I want to prove that I am a degree above the average warrior. That I am truly powerful.
I am going to the adventurer’s guild today in pursuit of that goal. I intend to take the most difficult tier 5 quest possible in order to prove myself to the guild. When I arrived there, something odd was hanging on the wall.
There is a section for bounties on criminals. Since the adventurer’s guild is technically a part of the military, they keep tabs on criminals who are likely to be found in the area and offer rewards for capture or information. In this section of the wall, there was a warning.
‘Warning: Tier 4 threat found nearby. Capital soldiers are expected soon. Do not fight unprepared. 25,000 cleia for proof of death. 1.000 cleia for information that leads to defeat.
Name: Toutos of Cambetum
Distinguishing features: large burn scar on the bottom right of the face, cut scar on the top left, black eyes, red hair.
Crimes: Murder, Theft, Patricide, Arson, Rape. Crimes occurred during the war of Yevenies.’
So, he is a war criminal? From what I can tell, crimes that occur during war are almost never reported or charged in this world. He must have been pretty heinous to have people after his head. Especially if they are offering the equivalent of 50,000 USD to have him killed.
And he is a rapist too? Come to think of it, that occurs a lot during the war. But it is almost never punished. In my old world, part of the feminist theory of international relations was that occurrences of rape should be counted and presented to a degree comparable to casualties, monetary damage, and other statistics. But I was never interested in that. Listening to what feminists say is something I’ll probably never do, and I personally don’t care about war in the past or present unless it affects me. Whether people are killing each other across the globe is of no concern to me.
Anyways, we’ll just have to wait for soldiers to get here. There are no adventurers above tier 5 in my city. The only person who would count is Aquila, but she doesn’t take on quests. She only watches me do them.
That being said, she is taking a lot of interest in the poster. She is also quite lost in thought. Does she know him? Probably not I’d say, his name is one that comes from the northern part of the continent, there is no reason he would fight in our front. Then what is she thinking about? My answer arrived not long after a creepy smile appeared on her face.
“Cassius, I have decided. You are going to fight and kill this man.”
Huh?
…
I initially intended to turn her down. However, she eventually persuaded me. Making me realize that beating him will prove I’m at the level of tier 4. Plus, I’m going to need real combat experience if I am going to kill that man one day. I don’t need the money as I am already rich from inheritance, but it doesn’t hurt to have it.
I decided Octavia shouldn’t know about it. She is 11 years old, she is probably too young to be hearing about death. I lied and said it was a standard monster hunt and nothing special. Aquila usually likes messing with us, but she kept quiet. She is taking this seriously too. Well, even someone reckless like her realizes the threat he poses.
This guy was a former soldier in the war. He has also gone 15 years without capture. Along with being classified as a tier 4 threat. This guy is no joke.
We departed after returning to the estate from the guild. We share a horse that has enough supplies for a 3-day trip. He is in the vicinity of a small village to the east. He has been living in a fishing hut for the last few years. It is likely that he knows he’s been exposed, but he also doesn’t have a horse and probably has to pack heavily knowing that entering villages will be too risky.
Traveling south will be his most likely path. There are mountains to the north, and the passes will be inaccessible if they know he’s in the area. We are thus planning to head southeast at a fast pace.
The first few days have we have no luck with the investigation. Resupplying isn’t too difficult, but we have to purchase goods above market price in these areas due to the lack of merchants in the area. One week in we finally got our first clue.
Near the coast, a strange man covering his face is searching for a boat. There aren’t many port cities on the east coast, because beyond that coast is just the unwalken lands. But there are still some scattered about. We rush to the area described.
After enough investigation, we find the source of the rumors. He said he gave directions to Lopodunum. A port city with about 25,000 inhabitants one week’s foot travel to the south. He gave directions 4 days ago. If we hurry, we can probably get there in time. Most likely, if he gets there first, he will steal a boat and make a run for it.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
We traveled with haste day and night. Stopping only twice. We managed to get there in 2 days. When we got there, news came that no boats had been stolen. This is a good sign, hopefully, we can catch him outside the city. I want to sleep, but if I do so then I might miss him. I pulled all-nighters before but doing it before a fight is probably a bad idea.
I am very tired, but adrenaline is keeping me awake. Just thinking about fighting a man to the death is enough to get my blood pumping. Controlling my breath and focusing is enough to stop the anxiety. Aquila has been preparing me for fights by teaching me that.
Two hours passed when I saw him. He is tall, muscular, and has a wooden rod on his back. That is probably a spear. He has a large burn scar and a cut scar on his face as described. His hair is red and his eyes are black. He has an intimidating aura, different from Aquila. The look on his face is serious, and he is analyzing his surroundings. Eventually, his eyes analyzed the bushes I was hiding in. I hid myself perfectly, or so I thought.
He rapidly pulled the pole covered in cloth off his back and stabbed it directly where I was lying. I was barely in time to jump out from my spot in the bushes onto the road barely keeping my balance.
He pulled his spear out of the ground and ripped off the cloth which now had a hole in it. Then he pointed his spear at me. I’m much faster now than when I fought the orc. Probably around Julius’ level when he died. That is because I use mana much more efficiently than he did during training and battle.
Still, this guy’s speed is no joke. I barely reacted to that. He stopped moving, analyzing me. Then his mouth opens.
“Ah, those idiots sent a kid at me huh? They’re getting desperate now. They even sent a woman after me once. I thought they were desperate then but now is a whole different deal. Luckily, your fate will be easier than hers. I’m just going to kill you.”
He’s taunting me, trying to get me to rush in. That talk proved something though, he hadn’t noticed Aquila in the trees. She doesn’t plan to intervene until I am on the brink of death, but she will still save me if it comes to that.
“You really are an idiot though. Coming after me like this. I will teach you what a real fight is.”
He gave up on goading me into an attack and lunged at me. The first attack was a stab to the right of me, I dodged to the right. He then swung the tip of the spear at my neck, slowly pushing me back.
My back is to the tree line on the side of the road. I have to get out of this position. After he stabs at the center of my chest, I use my wind movement mana technique to get out of that predicament.
So far it has been impossible for me to get close. He leaves the tip of the spear near the center of his body, allowing him to react to any attempts to move close instantly. What’s bothering me is that he has been using basic maneuvering and a speed advantage so far. This doesn’t feel like a tier 4 threat.
The difference is not so great that I can’t keep up. With magic, I have the advantage! I leap in with my daggers drawn, building up as much magic as possible. Then, I create an explosion with fire magic. Directly at the man.
I can’t see his figure behind the flash of light, but I’m sure I got him. When my vision becomes unobscured once more, there is nothing there. Then I sense it behind me. I leap forward doing a 180 with my body and see him once more. I barely managed to block his forward thrust.
He pulls back his spear once we both have our feet on the ground again. I figure he will do a forward thrust. But he brings the spear above his head and swings down as hard as he can. I jump back just in time, then he does the same diagonally.
I leap away again to buy time, but he follows me hard. He keeps pushing faster and faster, swinging wilder and wilder. Is this his plan? He is pushing me back for now, but there is a reason why swinging wildly doesn’t work.
He begins the process of pulling his spear back for another wide swing. I see this and jump in. However, he stops just as begins to pull back. He feinted with a wide swing and stabbed forward in a short and controlled manner.
I had already jumped in; this stab was impossible to avoid. All I could do was push it off my center line with my right-hand dagger. He sliced into my left shoulder, then prepared another quick cut. I pushed myself away with wind magic and then cast fire magic all around me to buy time. It worked, but he vanished out of sight again.
What the fuck is going on? First, he slows down his movements to bait me in. Then he pushes me back with calm controlled movements. After that, he pushed me back with wild swings, but was just using that to bait me in for another precise attack,
Not only that, but when I saw him up close, I noticed his spear was flimsy as hell. Why would he use a weapon like that? He does have spare daggers on his chest, but why wouldn’t he just sell those and buy a nicer spear? Or steal one? I could use that to my advantage and break his spear while attacking…
But that feels like a trap. No, everything feels like a trap. Is this guy outsmarting me? No, he isn’t, that’s impossible. He is using his experience to his advantage; he knows how rookie fighters think. I don’t get why he would be this weary of me, he called me weak at the start… no that was a taunt, has he been weary of me all this time? Every movement so far has been a trap to give him the advantage.
I have too many escape abilities to get trapped. That’s how I’ve survived so far. All this time I’ve just been bailing myself out of shitty situations. This is so frustrating. Wait, isn’t thinking like this a trap too? Why is he giving me this time to think if he had the advantage?
Ah, he’s letting me overthink things. There is no way he’s running away; Aquila wouldn’t let him. Wait, Aquila? Why hasn’t she stepped in yet? I’m at a disadvantage.
It must be she thinks that I’m not. Why? Why does she not think I’m at a disadvantage? Ah, she knows because she’s fought alongside me so many times. If it’s mind games, I’ll win.
I see him emerge from the fire. I quickly cancel the magic. Any fire mage can extinguish their own fire as long as they don’t let it burn for too long. I don’t think I’ve looked at his face so far during this fight, but he looks extremely serious. Nothing like that cocky attitude shown before.
I know what I will do to win. Everything revolves around that spear. I doubt he’s been pushed this far into his arsenal of tricks so far. Considering how focused he is.
I leap in once more at the man. Daggers in hand. I use wind magic to get in close as fast as possible. He stabs at me, as expected, he stabs just enough to my left to allow me to dodge comfortably. I do exactly that, I also toss my daggers into the air.
He smiles as he watches me do this as if saying ‘I’ve won’. The obvious move here is to break it, it’s a flimsy spear, and getting into a struggle with someone physically superior to me would be stupid. However, breaking it is exactly what he was expecting. So, while building up as much mana into my hands as possible I pull it away and start ready it to swing.
He dropped the spear without a struggle, it was to be expected he would do that. He was expecting me to break the spear after all. But, even stealing it without breaking it didn’t fade that smile off his face. Because his move would work out regardless.
He leapt into point-blank range pulling the dagger out of the guard on his chest. Even if I stole the spear instead of breaking it, he would have the advantage at this range. He could easily get in close while I spent the milliseconds preparing to stab at him with the spear. This was his last trick.
However, if he paid closer attention to me, he would have known. I wouldn’t fall for a trick like this. And leaping into point-blank range is foolish. He should have noticed from the daggers I wield, that extremely close combat is my domain.
I also drop the spear as he gets in close and cast the explosion magic using the technique taught by Aquila. Before learning this technique, it’s likely my magic wouldn’t be powerful enough to kill him. But I know that this magic is far more potent than necessary to kill the likes of him.
In the final moments of the battle, his dagger approaches my neck. My hand is at my hip, casting the most powerful explosion I can conjure up. My magic is faster, moments later, his body is flying away at speeds far faster than I ever move. A hole in his chest was bleeding profusely. He is dead.
My daggers fall by my side and I throw them up. I touch my neck, and red covers my fingertips. Oh fuck… did he get me?
“Don’t worry, that wound is very shallow. It’s not life-threatening at all.” Aquila assures me.
But my body feels weak anyway. I collapse into Aquila’s arms. Then lose consciousness not long later.